Per la conoscenza della terminologia delle arti fuori di Toscana fra Tre e Quattrocento. Con alcune spigolature da documenti bolognesi e ferraresi

The article is divided into three parts. In the first part, after referring to an ongoing project of an online re-release of artistic documents coming mainly from Tuscany (and Siena in particular) dating back to the XIVth and XVth centuries, and of creation of a glossary of the artistic and architectural terminology contained therein, the author announces his intention to expand the investigation to the extra-Tuscan terminologies in use in the centres or areas that played an important role in the domain of figurative arts in the period under consideration, to study the timeframe and means of their emergence and diffusion. For this purpose, the author believes that the archives of the Fabbricerie, related to the construction of large churches, could be fertile ground for documentary investigation. In the second part, the results of a first survey in the Archivio della Fabbrica di San Petronio, in Bologna, are followed by the examination of a few words extracted from two documents dating back to the end of the XIVth century. In the third part, the focus is on a rich anthology of artistic documents made available to experts by Adriano Franceschini, Artisti a Ferrara in età umanistica e rinascimentale, through which it is possible to know better the artistic vocabulary in Ferrara; also in this case, some lexical examples are provided.

The Middle Ages

The High Middle Ages witnessed Christmas emerge as a major Christian feast in western Europe, a time of merriment and miracles. Always intended to celebrate the Incarnation, Christmas became a time to honour the little baby in the manger and his loving mother, as part of a spiritual shift towards remembering the human Jesus. Although Kalends traditions continued on from Antiquity, which engaged the lay population in carnivalesque revelries that included mumming, games, and feasting, clerics developed new practices that infused ecclesiastical celebrations with the same sense of inversion and fun. Feasts of Fools, Boy Bishops, and extravagant liturgical dramas allowed reformers to channel festive energy in ways that showcased developments in the arts, especially in the large churches of north-western Europe, without losing the joyful character that came with honouring the paradox of God made man.

The use of the term ‘DNA’ as a missiological metaphor in contemporary Church narratives

Missiologists propose that the Church and mission are inseparable as the Church has its very being because there is mission, and it is the Missio Dei which constitutes the Church. In recent history the Anglican Church has interpreted this as the essential ‘DNA’ of the local church which is to be a missional community. The church’s mission therefore is presented as the gift of participating through the Holy Spirit in the Son’s mission from the Father to the world. In other words, it is proposed that the Church is both the fruit of God’s mission and the agent of His mission. But, in order to communicate this relationship between Church and mission in a postmodern context, the use of new metaphors and new terminologies, which are derived from our contemporary context, is shaping new ways of thinking. An exploration of the development of missional churches considers the significance of developing and embedding what has become referred to as missional DNA or mDNA at every level of the organisation of the Church. This mDNA is the outward model of missional behaviour that compels the whole church to reach a lost world. It can be seen from evidence-based, case study research amongst large churches in the UK that there is consistency in the adoption and use of the term DNA by its leadership in reference to the local church’s values and its attitude towards mission. This article explores the hypothesis that the term DNA is commonly accepted amongst local churches as a contributor to a contemporary language that forms the narrative of the Church and explores its feasibility and shortcomings as an adopted missiological metaphor.

Congregations

This chapter discusses six trends in congregational life: looser connections between congregations and denominations, more computer technology, more informal worship, older congregants, more high-income and college-educated congregants, and, what is perhaps most important, more people concentrated in very large churches. Taken together, these trends show that congregations are shaped by the same cultural, social, and economic pressures affecting American life and institutions more generally. The National Congregations Study (NCS), which began in 1998, is the primary source of information for several of the trends described in this chapter. As with change in American religion as a whole, trends in congregational life should be seen against the backdrop of substantial continuity, especially for the relatively brief period covered by the NCS.

Marketing In America's Large Protestant Churches

The current study assesses, from a quantitative perspective, the extent to which marketing and planning are being effectively used by large, Protestant churches to meet their goals. Even though the debate over whether religious organizations should apply business world concepts continues, the use of management and marketing practices from business in churches, particularly large churches, does occur.

The Impact of Charismatic Pastoral Leadership On Religious Commitment and Church Growth in the Korean Mega-Churches

How are the Korean mega-churches growing? What distinguishes them from smaller size of churches? To understand the phenomenal growth of the Korean mega-churches, the survey was taken in 1998 to measure the perceptions of members about their pastor, view of church growth, and religious characteristics, based on 1,260 samples (750 for the mega-churches, 265 for the large churches, and 245 for the small/middle-sized churches). The results showed that the members of the mega-churches are more likely to perceive their senior pastor as charismatic, are more likely to attribute the factors of church growth to their senior pastor, and are more likely to exhibit religious commitment than are the members of the smaller size of churches. This paper argues that charismatic pastoral leadership has an immense impact on religious commitment of the members, thereby leading to church growth.